From jhusted@halcyon.comSun Feb 19 15:48:39 1995
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 17:06:00 -0800 (PST)
From: James Husted <jhusted@halcyon.com>
To: Squishy <squishy@bga.com>
Cc: analogue@hyperreal.com
Subject: Re: maestro echoplex, other stuff

On Sat, 18 Feb 1995, Squishy wrote:

> >there's a place hereabouts that has two maestro echoplexes. both of them 
> >seem in decent condition, mechanically. it looks like the tape in one 
> >might be totally shot.. in the other it might be okay. anyway, i'd like 
> >to hear people's opinions of these sonically and musically, as well as 
> >with respect to how hard it might be to get one working. what could be 
> >wrong, what would i have to do? and how much do you think it would be 
> >worth? how does it compare to, say, a roland space echo? etc.
> 
> How hard is it to get tapes for tape echoes?  
> 
I have 2 echoplexes (or echoplexi) and the tape thing was *always* a 
drag. Here's what I did to get around it:
 1) take the plastic cover off the tape section and cut the leftmost edge 
off from the rear to about 1.5" from the front (about wgere the silver 
raised line under the logo is)and 3/4" from the bottom edge.
 2) go to the local Radio Shaft and buy (if you local one has it) a 
8-track cartridge blank (you heard right.) for under 5$.
 3) carefully take the cartridge apart (a screwdriver inserted into the 
locking tabs should do the trick) and saw the front half off leaving 4" 
of car left.
 4) find the sensor foil on the tape and splice it out.
 5) put the cart back together and place it in the echoplex hanging over 
the hole where the power cord gets stashed, and against the post used to 
screw the cover on (some plastic carving may be ness.)
 6) pull the tape out and thread it like before
 7) put the cover back on (more plastic carving) and zowie! Now you have 
a 10-20 min loop for 1/10 the price!

Echoplexes are different from space echos in many ways. Space echos are 
on the whole, much cleaner sounding. SE's also allow with their 
multi-head arangements a syncopated echo effect. Echoplexes to me are mor 
of an instrement. The head assembly can be yanked from the shortest to 
longest echo times in an instant (the SE's change the tape speed instead) 
and if the machine is in its echo-feedback mode, this can be played like 
birds and rayguns etc. The tapes in the space echo can be replaced with 
any 1/4" tape and it will work since the tape in those machines lie 
un-coiled in a tape bay. I've had success in just hanging the tape out 
the backs of both machines.

Sorry for the large post..

James Husted
jhusted@halcyon.com